


Doth Protest Too Much

by mosylu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Season 6 Speculation, post-cure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 01:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20858294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: Cisco is happy. He's totally happy! He has a great life now that he's no longer Vibe. So what if Kamilla, Caitlin, and even his own subconscious seem to think differently?He'stotallyhappy.





	Doth Protest Too Much

**Author's Note:**

> Accawabba21 over on Tumblr asked me this: "Eric Wallace, showrunner of The Flash, said this about Cisco's arc in season 6: "The big question is, can Cisco be happy without his powers?" Can you please write a season 6 speculation fic addressing that question? Killervibe is always welcome too!"

Cisco was at a particularly delicate stage of his welding project when his phone rang, buzzing against the table. “Who’s that?” he asked.

Caitlin, who was hanging out in his lab as he worked, leaned over to check the screen. “It’s Kamilla,” she reported, already reaching for it.

“Let it go,” he told her.

She sat back, lips pursed under the welding goggles he always made her wear if she was going to hang out in his lab while he was welding. Safety first. “Since when do you let your girlfriend go to voicemail?”

“My hands are full,” he said.

“I would have gotten it for you.”

“Nnh.”

“Or it’s got that voice activated function.”

He shrugged and set down his welder. Pushing his goggles up on his forehead, he examined his work.

She crossed her arms. “Is something going on?”

He nudged at the gadget, unsatisfied. “We’re kind of … fighting right now,” he said.

“Fighting about what?”

“It’s just like a spat.”

“A spat.”

“You know, a tiff.”

“I’m aware of several synonyms for fighting,” she said dryly. “If you don’t want to tell me, that’s okay.”

He yanked off his goggles, wincing as it ripped out a strand or two of hair. “If you absolutely have to know, she thinks I’m not happy.”

“Not happy? You mean, being with her?” Caitlin pulled her goggles off too, shaking her hair out and smoothing it down. 

“No, I’m fine with her. Just, like, in general. Which is crazy. I’ve got a great job, great friends, great girlfriend - I’m happy. I’m ecstatic. I’m delirious.” Back at it with the synonyms, he thought, and stopped.

“Okay,” Caitlin said.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “What?”

“Nothing!”

“Nothing? Really? Because that’s exactly the same kind of okay that Kamilla gave me this morning. It means the polar opposite of okay.”

“Well, Cisco, if you say you’re happy, I believe you.”

“Ugh.” He threw up his hands. “What the hell? How do all you women know how to do that? Do you take classes or something?”

She leveled a look at him. “Yes. Saturday mornings at the Y. We have brunch afterwards.”

In spite of himself, he let out a snort of laughter.

Caitlin smiled too, but continued. “Does she have a reason she thinks you’re not happy? Something you’re doing, or not doing?”

“I don’t know. We’re coming up on six months soon. We’re kind of easing out of that new-couple buzz, you know, settling into a groove. Maybe she’s feeling that and kind of, like, projecting.”

“You mean, she’s thinking about breaking up with you? Or she thinks you are?”

“Why would I break up with her? I have no reason to do that. She’s awesome!”

“Okay,” Caitlin said. “Then maybe she feels like, in general, you’re not the same as you were when you two got together, and she thinks that’s making you unhappy.”

He cocked his head. “What do you think? You’ve known me longer. Am I that different?”

She looked down at her knee, picking off a little piece of lint that needed her immediate attention. “You do seem different, lately. In the last few months.”

“Well, yeah, I don’t have vibes rattling around my skull, I’m not fighting criminals hand-to-hand every week, I’m not having the multiverse play ping-pong with me … I’m just Cisco these days. Which is great.”

“It is a change,” Caitlin said. 

He frowned at her, unsure whether she’d agreed with him or not.

Her own phone, sitting on the table next to Cisco’s, dinged brightly. “Oh, my tests,” she said. “They’re done.” She slid off her stool and tweaked her skirt straight. “Look, I really can’t speak for Kamilla. But if she thinks you’re unhappy, maybe it’s worth hearing her reasons instead of just telling her you’re not.”

Cisco folded his hands on the top of his head and watched her go. Maybe she was right. Maybe Kamilla needed some specific reassurances instead of generalized ones. 

(Maybe Kamilla was right.)

(Of course she wasn’t right. Of course he wasn’t unhappy with his life.)

He frowned at his work. Yeah, there was something missing all right. He hopped up and went to his shelves, poking around the flotsam and jetsam that wound up there, waiting to be turned into something handy-dandy and amazing.

He pushed a box aside and knocked something clattering to the floor. When he looked down to see what it was, he almost yelped aloud.

A pair of his Vibe goggles, which he kept meaning to put away in a closet. The lenses stared up at him blankly, like the corpse of his rejected superhero self.

He stared back at them. “This was my choice,” he said. “Mine. It’s my life and it was my choice and nobody made me do it.”

The lenses had no reply. 

“I have no reason to be unhappy,” he said to them.

_Whatever you say, Cisco,_ Vibe said.

FINIS


End file.
